Shingle roofing and method of laying the same



Patented Sept. 27, 1932 UNITED STATES wrLLIAM' CHARLES MGWILLIAMS, or NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS SHINGLE ROOFING AN D METHOD OF LAYING THE SAME Application filed'January 11, 1930. Serial No. 420,129.

This invention relates to an improvement in roofing, and particularly to a novel construction and arrangement of shingles, with special reference to the use of asphaltum or other manufactured composition as a shingle material.

In the application of roofing shingles composed of manufactured material, precautions must be taken to avoid exposure of too great lengths of free unattached shingle ends beyond each immediately succeeding row. With the ordinary commercial quality of asphaltum shingle, it is impractical on account of its flexible nature to expose, with-' out special fastenings, more than five inches of the lower end of each shingle. Efforts have been made to increase this exposure by attaching each shingle at one lower corner by a nail and lapping the side edge of an 29 adjacent shingle to protect the nail. Cracking or unsightly distortion of the exposed surfaces of shingles frequently occurs along the line of the edge of an underlying shingle when the lateral edges of shingles are laid to overlappne another. If the material of the shingle is not sufficiently pliable to conform closely to the edge of a shingle which is underneath, then an opening or groove is produced at thelateral edge of each underlying shingle through which water-and other destructive agents-may enter.

In accordance with the present invention, a much greater length of shingle can be ex posed Without incurring the dilliculties enlaying shingles and an improved form of shingle is provided for both facilitating the countered in the usual side-lap method of to one-third of the width of a shingle, thus locating one lateral edge of each shingle coincidently with and abutting the overlapping edge of a shingle in the row beneath. This arrangement produces an attractive appearance by permitting the exposure of two-thirds of the width of each shingle, the exposed lateral edges being positioned in line with the mid portion of the-exposed area of the shingle directly beneath.

Fastening nails or other securing vmeans may be driven through each shingle at the lower corner of the third which is overlapped by its neighbor, thus permitting a greater length of vertical exposure for the individual shingle than is possible without the side-lap and at the same time, due to the abutting edges of shingles in successive rows, leakage through openings between shingles is reduced. to a minimum. Fastenings at other suitable points, preferably in the upper corner, may be used to prevent movement of the shingle.

If the head-lap, or the amount of overlapping between adjacent rows, is adjusted tic-approximately one-half the length of a shingle, maintaining at the same time the side-lap relations specified, it will be found that three thicknesses of shingles are pro-. vided at every point in the roofing. This is ample for all practical purposes and by proportioning this head-lap to at least one-half of the shingle length, all supporting surfaces in contact with the under side of exposed shingle areas will be unbroken, thereby preventing ridges or folds in such exposed surfaces.

Roofing applied in this manner is both durable and effective in affording protection against extreme weather conditions. The ability of projecting'shingles to retain close contact with unbroken plane surfaces of the shingles "below adapts this type of construction to roofs regardless of the degree of pitch.

In an important aspect, my invention comprises a shingle of novel shape particularly adapted to, be employed according to, the

method described, consisting in two or more. abutting rectangular, sections united integrally along their common marginal line. This results in a shingle with two offset sections joined together at their lateral edges. If the spacing between rows of shingles is to be set at one-half the length of the shingle, then the offset between sections will be in 5 this amount and the offset sections may be used as a gauge for aiding in more accurately spacing the rows.

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. l is a view in perspective of my improved form of shingle;

Fig. 2 is a view in perspective of a roofing partially completed, parts being broken away to more clearly illustrate the structure; and

Fig. 3 is a plan view, on a reduced scale,

of a roofing construction similar to that shown in Fig. 2.

The shingle is formed in two integral, substantially rectangular similar sections 12 and 14 joined together along the line of two of 5 their adjacent edges but offset from each other along this line a predetermined distance which is governed according to the desired spacings of the shingles when applied in the form of roofing. The shingle is not necessarily limited to two sections but any number may be used which could otherwise be conveniently packaged and handled. Certain steps employed in my invention may also be practiced with individual shingle sections, formed separately from each other and applied according to the manner about to be described.

The roofing construction shown in Fig. 2 is arranged with a plurality of superposed g shingle sections, either in the double section form of Fig. 1 or otherwise. These are laid in successive rows, each row overlapping that directly below it a suflicient distance to prevent leakage and keep out other destructive 5 agencies.

According to the manner of laying the shingles, three layers of shingle material cover every point in the roofing. The cut away portion exposes in its upper half the 50,thicknesses 1G, 17 and 18. In the left lower half the thicknesses 17, 18 and 20 are exposed, while in the right lower half the thicknesses 18, 20 and 22 are exposed, the corner 22 being the upper left-hand corner of section 26 of an underlying shingle. The shin gles are arranged in horizontal rows, preferably running at right angles to the slope of the roof. Certain preliminary shingles or portions of shingles, indicated generally by the reference characters 29, may be attached at the lower and lateral main edges of the roof. Since these do not involve fundamental features of the roofing structure and may be. applied in different ways, according 6 to rzsults desired, no detailed description of these preliminary coverings will be made. In some cases plain strips of roofing material may be appliedalong the lower and lateral edges but in the present case portions of shingles have been shown at these edges as would appear if a section were out through the roofing along these lines, this requiring vari ous fractional parts of shingle sections.

Each shingle or section is applied in a row with its right edge overlapping the next adjacent shingle a distance substantially equal to one-third of the width of the section, thus exposing the remaining two-thirds of the width of the underlying adjacent shingle. The succeeding row is applied in a similar manner, laying the shingles from the right side of the roof toward the left, but the individual shingles, while overlapping each other one-third of their width, are also displaced from the individual shingles in the first row by substantially one-third of the width of a single section. This results in positioning the shingles in the second row with the edge opposite their overlapping edge lying eoincidently with and abutting the overlapping lateral edge of a shingle in the row immediately beneath. The position of the abutting edges is shown more clearly by the edges 32 and of the shingle sections 35 and 36. The section 35 lies in the row with exposed lower edges shown in alignment at 37, while the section 36 has its lower edge in alignment with the'lower edges 38 of the next succeeding row. The exposed lateral edge 40 of section 36 lies approximately in line with the mid portion of the exposed area of the shingle directly beneath, so that water accumulating along this edge will be distributed in passing down the roof by the fiat exposed area of the shingle in the lower row, thus aiding in maintaining the roof in leak-proof condition.

An example of shingle size may be selected for illustration as having a length of 16 and a width of 18", so that each lateral edge of shingle section will overlap its neighboring shingle by approximately 6. The head-lap may be adjusted to S", or approximately one-half of the total length of the shingle section. This leaves a considerably greater length of exposed projecting end.

than is possible with ordinary methods without the side-lap. By proportioning the overlap in this way or in an equivalent way, with dimensions bearing mathematical relation thereto, a very effective result is obtained. lVith a head-lap equal to one-half or more of the total length of a section, every portion of the roof will have at least three layers of roofing protecting it and all exposed areas. of the shingles will be supported by plane, even surfaces, obviating cracks or folds or other protuberances which would result where uneven supporting surfaces for.

these areas might be present.

Fastening means for securing the shingles in their respective places may be applied at the lower portion of each shingle which is covered b the adjacent overlapping portion of the neighboring shingle, in order to definitely fix at least one corner of the lower edge. Such fastening means is indicated at 42, while others may be located at suitable points, but it has been found that twonails or other fastening means 42 and 43 in diagonal corners are sufiicient for each shingle section. If two or more of the sections are formed integrally, then the fastening means 45 and 46 may be applied to the additional section. Shingles laid according to this method will overlap the lowernail positions 42 and the upper nail positions 43 will also be effectively covered.

The arrangement of shingles in rows according to my improved method of laylng 1s more clearly shown in Fig. 3, in which are illustrated four rows 48 of my double ofi'set shingles. The bottom row is laid with the bottom edges 50 of the lower shingle sections forming the bottom edge of the roof. The next adjacent row from above is laid with its bottom edges 50 coinciding with the line formed by the bottom edges 52 of the upper shingle sections in the row directly beneath, the bottom shingle sections of the top row overlapping the top shingle sections of the row beneath a distance equal to one-third of the section width, as heretofore described. Tn the completed roof, only the bottom righthand corner portion of each lower section is exposed and of the exposed portion the upper and left-hand edges are firmly held b being overlapped. The shingle is thereby held firmly down against the action of wind and rain and all points of the roof are covered with a three-ply thickness of shingles. By forming the shingles in this manner, the laying operation is facilitated to a considerable extent and it has been found that a roof can be covered with a double section shingle approximately 25% fasterthanwitha shingle having a single section. Not only is the same area cove ed in a shorter time by the improved form of shingle but the distance of ofl'set between the two sections automatically gauges the distance of exposure of the lower portion of the shingle section, resulting in more easy alignment and a more sightly appearance. Shingles of this nature may also be laid in rows running obliquely to the slope of the roof. Thus a shingle may be applied at the lower edge of the roof and succeeding shingles applied upwardly and to the right, according to the system shown in Fig. 2, until the extreme right edge of the roof is reached. The resulting construction is the same regardless of whether the shingles are laid in horizontal or oblique rows. This manner of shingling is particularly adapted for use with shingles composed of asphaltum or other manufactured material, where difficulty is likely to occur from cracking, curling or other distortion. It permits a greater exposed-length along the line of slope of the roof than has been possible heretofore in the ordinary head-lap methods and isnot subject to difiiculties encountered by previous side-lap methods of laying. This is because no unevennesses occur in the sup porting areas of the exposed shingle surfaces and all overlapping edges are located above the middle of the exposed areas in the row below. For this reason a roof constructed according to this system is extremely durable and is effective for low as well as high pitch roofs without the use of an underlayer of paper or other auxiliary protection. It will, furthermore, be particularly noted that in my roofing the shingles are so overlapped that only the bottom edge and one lateral edge of onesection of each shingle is exposed. This is of very considerable importance in a composition shingle such as of asphaltum, since such shingles will be blown and bentupwardly from the roof and torn entirely away by the wind unless they are very securely fixed at their edges.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Detters Patent is:

1. In a roofing construction, a plurality of relatively thin and flexible composition shingles each having two rectangular sections ofi'set from one another a distance at least equal to one-half the length of the lateral edge of one of said sections to which the other y section is attached, and arranged transversely of the roof in rows whose center lines are spaced apart a distance equal to the oflset between sections, each section being integral with an adjacent section in a next adjacent row and overlapping an adjacent section in its row, and the combined sections forming a roof of exposed rectangular areas each of which is comprised Within a bottom corner of a shingle section and is respectively of less extent longitudinally and transversely than the height and width of the section.

2. In a ro fing construction, a plurality of relatively t 'n and flexible composition shinglesv each composed of two rectangular integral sections oifset from one another a distance at least equal to one-half the length of the lateraledge of one of said sections to which the other section is attached, said shingles being arranged in transverse rows whose center lines are spaced apart a distance equal A to said ofiset between sections, and one-third of the area of each of said sections overlapping one section of an adjacent shingle in the same row, whereby the completed roofing is of three ply thickness and comprises a plurality of adjacent and exposed rectangular areas each of which is a bottom corner portion of a shingle section and of a lateral extent two-thirds of the width of the section.

3. A method of roofing, consisting of forming relatively large, thin and flexible composi- 5 tion shingles in two sections integrally connected at adjacent edges and offset from each other, and so laying each shingle that its two sections respectively lie in two adjacent rows of sections and are in oblique alignment with the sections of other shingles adjacent to opposite sides thereof, that each section overlaps an adjacent section in its row to produce a plurality of like rows of sections overlapping in the same direction, and that the combined sections form a roof of rows of exposed rectangular areas each of which is comprised Within a bottom corner of a shingle section and is respectively of less extent longitudlnaily and transversely than the height and width of the section.

WILLIAM CHARLES MQWILLIAMS. 

